He is also known under the ring nameHanson, which he used from 2013 to 2019, and under the ring nameHandsome Johnny, which was used most of his career prior to 2013. Smith and Raymond Rowe (now known as Erik), have been a regulartag team since 2014, initially under the name War Machine, then later War Raiders, The Viking Experience, Viking Raiders, and currently War Raiders. Smith and Rowe have held tag team championships on three continents, beingtwo-timeIWGP Tag Team Champions in Japan, the WCPW Tag Team Championship in England, and having won theROH World Tag Team Championship in the United States.
On February 16, 2008, Smith defeated Brandon Locke for theNECW Television Championship inQuincy, Massachusetts. The title was vacated on April 22, 2008, due to an injury Smith suffered in a title defense. On June 1, 2008, Smith became the champion again after defeating Chase Del Monte in a tournament final held at Suffolk Downs. In late 2008 a series of vignettes featuring Smith began to air during Chaotic Wrestling live events and on the web, showed Handsome Johnny discovering himself on a trip abroad and lead to the introduction of "The Duke of Elegance" Don Chesterfield into Chaotic storylines. Smith also used this character for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance as well as Front Row Wrestling. In NECW, he changed his ring name in 2010 to "Handsome" Johnny Hayes.
In November 2016, War Machine made their debut forNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) by entering the2016 World Tag League.[20] They finished the tournament on December 7 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals.[21]
On January 16, 2018,WWE announced that Hanson had signed a contract with the company and would be reporting to theWWE Performance Center.[4] On March 17, 2018, Hanson and tag team partner, Rowe made their NXT debut at a house show, defeating the team of Adrian Jaoude &Cezar Bononi in their first match.[26] On the edition of April 11, 2018 ofNXT, he and Rowe, dubbed War Machine, made their TV debuts, attacking Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic andTucker Knight) and the team ofRiddick Moss andTino Sabbatelli. Two days later on the April 13, 2018 edition ofNXT, they went on to defeat the team ofDanny Burch andOney Lorcan.[27][unreliable source?]
Throughout the beginning of the year, the team of Hanson & Rowe, now dubbed the War Raiders would continue their winning streak, by defeating several tag teams in the NXT division, includingThe Mighty and Heavy Machinery.[28] AtNXT TakeOver: WarGames, War Raiders would team up withRicochet andPete Dunne in the main event to defeatThe Undisputed Era in the eponymousWarGames match.[29] AtNXT TakeOver: Phoenix, War Raiders defeated the team ofKyle O'Reilly andRoderick Strong to win theNXT Tag Team Championship. On April 15, 2019, they debuted onRaw as The Viking Experience under the new ring names of Erik (Rowe) and Ivar (Hanson). The following week, their name was changed toThe Viking Raiders.[30] On September 7, 2020 episode ofRaw, The Viking Raiders teamed up withApollo Crews andRicochet in an eight-man tag team match againstThe Hurt Business in a losing effort, whereCedric Alexander scored the pinfall over Ricochet. The match was forced to an abrupt ending due to Ivar suffering a legitimate cervical injury during the match.[31][32] On September 14, Ivar underwent successful surgery to repair a neck injury.[33][34] Ivar would return to in ring action on April 12 edition ofRaw, teaming up with his tag team partner Erik going up against Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander in a winning effort.[35] As part of the2021 Draft, both Ivar and Erik were drafted to theSmackDown brand.[36][37]
As part of the2023 WWE Draft, both Ivar and Erik were drafted to theRawbrand.[38] On the April 9, 2024, Ivar returned to NXT to challengeNXT North American ChampionOba Femi for the title but failed to defeat Femi at Week 2 ofSpring Breakin'.[39][40] At Night 1 of the2024 WWE Draft, Ivar was drafted to the Raw brand in the supplementary draft.[41] On the May 14 episode ofNXT,Wes Lee, Ivar, andJosh Briggs argued over who should get a title match. Femi decided to let the three fight amongst themselves, and a triple threat match between Lee, Ivar, and Briggs was scheduled for the following week, where the winner would face Femi for his title atNXT Battleground. Later that same night,Gallus (Joe Coffey,Mark Coffey, andWolfgang) made their return attacking the three competitors.[42] Ivar ended up injured and out of action for an indefinite period of time.[43]
In October 2024, cryptic messages began airing onRaw featuring Nordic characters that translate to "WAR" to promote the team's return. On the October 14 episode ofRaw, Ivar and Erik returned defeatingAlpha Academy reverting back to theirWar Raiders name and gimmick. Two weeks later, they defeated theLWO andThe New Day in a Triple Threat Tag Team match to become No'1 Contenders to theWorld Tag Team Championships held byThe Judgment Day'sFinn Bálor andJD McDonagh but failed to win the titles after interference fromDominik Mysterio andCarlito.[44] On the December 16 episode ofRaw, The War Raiders defeated Bálor and McDonagh to become two-time Word Tag Team Champions.[45]
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